Women's Ambition Of Married Women From 19th Century To Today

Traditions from previous generations still exist in our society today. This would include the traditional role of married women to cook, clean, and take care of their families. In addition to married women’s traditional gender roles, women are also very prevalent in traditional male gender roles. This would include being the breadwinner of the household or even being a single parent without a male at all. In comparing the 19th century to today’s society, marriage has steadily declined while cohabitation has taken its place (cite). The change in gender roles reflects women’s ambition to be more than just submissive, passive, and fragile.

Kate Chopin writes, in “The Story of an Hour”, of Mrs. Mallard’s ambition to want more for her life

Arranged marriages and marriages of convenience still exist but are less prevalent. This is due to women’s ambition to want more for their life. To be treated equally to man. The decline of marriage is due to the fact that women no longer need to marry to survive in our world today. Since many more people are marrying because of love, cohabitation is on the rise (cite). The idea of marrying someone without knowing if it can actually work led to many divorces. After a marriage ceremony and a couple moves in with each other for the first time, certain habits or truths not discovered before may lead to confrontations that can be deal breakers. In the past, as explained by Mrs. Mallard’s character, women just had to live with it without any say so. Once Louise became aware of her husband’s death, she rejoiced that she was free. Even with heart problems, she thought of doing something with her life. Louise could not truly love her husband because she did not know her identity. She ultimately rejoices in her newly found female identity. Even though Brently loved her, she realized that his kind intentions were nonetheless cruel because they restricted her identity. Chopin implies that by oppressing an individual’s identity can also oppress love in a marriage. Love can thrive only if both in the marriage are free (cite). Women’s rights have come a long way since those times. Women have been able to get our country serious about gender discrimination. The United States traveled a long road to get to the point of gender equality. The U.S. still has a long road ahead. Outside the U.S., there are oppressed women who struggle more than any American woman has ever been. In the Middle East, women’s rights activists fight for equal rights and demand violence against women to end